Juwan Staten vows to continue working in D-League

Holgorsen Excited About His Team

On Saturday, fans of the old gold and blue got their first glimpse of the 2015 version of the West Virginia University football team. Dana Holgorsen and his Mountaineers held their first open practice at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, W.Va.

Head coach Dana Holgorsen met with the media prior to the event and the air is certainly filled with excitement.

One hot topic heading into spring was centered around the quarterback position. As of today, it’s clear that Skyler Howard continues to lead the way, with William Crest gaining more experience.

“Skyler is operating extremely well,” Holgorsen said. “He’s had a lot more reps. When we pulled his redshirt last year he started getting a bunch more reps but you can tell William has also taken some reps. He was the backup there early for a few games during the year but both of those guys are much farther ahead than the two young pups but those young guys are attentive; they’re both smart.”

“For the time being we’re going to have to dump all of the reps into Skyler and William – that’s who you will see get the reps today.” Holgorsen said.

One area of concern comes at the outside wide receivers position. The unit has talent, but also comes with a lot of inexperience and true game reps.

“We’ve got five of them repping. They’re just really, really, really inexperienced and really green – a lot of young guys,” Holgorsen said. “Shelton (Gibson) is made a couple of plays downfield; (Devonte) Mathis has probably been our most steady guy but by no means are we ready to make any decisions on those guys whatsoever. Plus, we’ve got three new guys coming in. All three of them are going to be on the outside.

“We’ll line up with eight guys at the start of camp and we’ll probably have our most serious battles and serious talks during camp.”

One position change to note came at running back.

Wide receiver Jackie Marcellus will join JaJuan Seider and his unit in the backfield.

The 5’8″ 175 lb speedster played running back in high school, averaging 9.4 yds per carry as a senior at Immokalee High School in Florida.

“We moved Jacky Marcellus to running back and he’s showing some promise. He’s a tough kid that will stick his nose up in there.” Holgorsen said.

West Virginia will hold their next open practice on Saturday, April 11 in Morgantown.